Your driving license has always been one of the most important documents which you needed to carry around. However, you will no longer need to carry your driving license, permits, UPC, registration certificate and insurance documents for your vehicle. However, you will need to have the digilovker or MParivahan app in your smartphone.
The Motor Vehicle Rules have been changed recently and are now completely based on digital verifications of documents. This step has been taken by the government to ensure there are less corruption cases on roads. If you think that the photo of your documents will be enough, it won’t be. This is mostly because you will need to have access to your documents using the MParivahan app. Every detail related to the driver and vehicle can be easily downloaded via the source.
Statement by the officials
Talking about the act and eChallan system the ministry released an official statement, “The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has issued an advisory to states to accept Driving Licence, Registration Certification or other documents in ‘electronic form’ presented through DigiLocker or MParivahan platform as valid under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, and treat them at par with the certificates issued by the transport authorities.”
The details of digitalization of documents was issued by the government since the previous year itself. But, the government has now offered a legal backing to validate the digital documents as a proof.
As per the rules, if the concerned driver can produce his digital documents to the transportation department officials and police, they will not need to offer your physical documents. Now that we have a law, it will be tough to keep a check with it. Does everyone have a smartphone? This is one of the greatest challenges to determine if everyone can verify their source.
According to an official,
“Now there is a law and people can raise the issue, if the rule is not followed by the enforcement authorities.”
Despite the digital documents considered to be valid, many people have filed an RTI application stating that the police officials may refuse to accept these documents. In their application, they stated that the concerned officials have often considered mParivahan and digilocker documents to not be valid.
In response to the grievance, the ministry stated, “The advisory clarifies that the DigiLocker platform of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the mParivahan mobile app of the Road Transport and Highways Ministry has the facility to pull a citizen’s driving licence or the registration certificate or any other certificate in an electronic form.”
As far as the case of offence is concerned, if document is required, the enforcement agencies can proceed with the Vahan or Sarathi database to produce an eChallan.
“There would be no requirement of physical seizure of such documents. This IT based online verification of certificates is expected to help the enforcement authority in ensuring the genuineness of the details which further would result in better compliance and effective monitoring.”
Can anyone escape the new system?
No.
The record for rule violators will be maintained in the system. Apart from the behavior, the name of the inspector, the uniform of the inspector, time of inspection would be determined as well and all details will be maintained in the government portal. This helps to avoid harassment of the drivers.
Download all the data in your smartphone
Make sure to download the mParivahan app in your phone to keep a record of your driving license. Whenever you are on the road, make sure to be very careful while using your smartphones. The smartphone should solely be used for the purpose of evaluation of documents. If you’re caught using the smartphone apart from handling your documents, the concerned authorities may charge you for the offence.
New rules
Apart from changes in the driver’s certificate rules, the government of India has brought about new rules in other aspects as well. Here’s a list of new rules
- Debit Card and Credit Cards
The debit and credit cards will be able to use their respective cards internationally on request by the users, as per the new RBI rule. Depending on the limited online transactions, cardless transactions and international transactions, the card users can apply for the ‘opt-in’ and ‘opt-out’ services.
- Best Before Date
As per the rules by FSSAI or The Food Safety and Standard Authority of India, all sweet shops should have a “best before” date mentioned in the selling of unpacked or loose sweets and other edible items.
- Health Insurance
According to the new health insurance policy, the premiums would rise by 2-5%. Also, there will be a reduction in the list of illnesses depending on severity and inclusion of other conditions such as genetic diseases, mental health and COVID-19.
- Cancellation of free gas
Under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, all the families of India were provided with a free LPG connection. However, with the change in times, the provision of free LPG connection has been cancelled. The policy was valid only till 30 September, 2020.
- Cooking restrictions
As per the new rules by FSSAI, no food should be cooked with the blend of mustard and other cooking oils. The blend of mustard oil with other cooking oils tend to have a negative impact on the overall health.
- Tax Collected at Source
As per the new rule of Tax Collected at Source or TCS, an eCommerce operator must deduct around 1 per cent tax on the sale of economic products. As per the rule, the operator will deduct around 1 percent of income tax on the overall sale of products.
- Foreign Taxes
As far as foreign tours are concerned, a tax of 5% will be implied on any specific amount. However, for other foreign remittances, the tax will be implied only if the amount is over Rs 7 lakhs. An increase of 5% will be implied for foreign fund transfer of more than Rs 7 lakhs.
- Increase in the cost of TV
TV sets are now bound to become expensive because most of the TV parts are now having an increase in import duty of 5%.
The rules have been enforced all around the country from 1st of October. Make sure to use your electronic devices carefully and purchase products only after reading the terms and conditions.
